Title: Daihannyaharamita-kyo (The Great Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra Volume 495), Circa 1050-1185. A Rare Heian Period Manuscript in Scroll Format
Author: Translation of Xuánzàng
Condition: Fair
A Late Heian Period, mid 11th to late 12th century manuscript edition of the Daihannyaharamita-kyo or Da bore Boluomi Duo Yan Biao Di, also known as the Great Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra or Mahaprajnaparamita, being the 495th fascicle of the original 600, taken from the first collection of Prajñāpāramitā verses. This example has been written in handscroll format.
Translated as the Great Perfection of Wisdom, it is derived from the collection of Chinese scholar and translator Xuánzàng, who possessed a massive Sanskrit collection of Prajñāpāramitā sutras, which he later returned to China with, and later condensed into 600 scrolls, containing 5 million Chinese characters.
The collection comprises of 16 Prajñāpāramitā texts, among which includes the Diamond sutra, being scroll number 577.
The sutra has been written on strong mulberry paper and using a fine ink in a bold, blocky font, which does compare favorably to several Heian Period Sutras digitized on the KNM Collection Database (Objects BK97, BK145, BK146).
The sutra has been written in a single column format, with up to 17 characters per column.
This manuscript has been rendered and bound into scroll format, with covers, and small jikusai (knobs), made of lacquered wood.
One manuscript in handscroll format, roughly 26 x 900 cm
This manuscript is in fair shape, with some wear and worming to the covers. There is considerable worming to the margins, and a few worm tracks to the main text that gets heavier to the last 150 cm, with minor character loss.